25 Questions About ‘Christmas With the Kranks’

We’ll start here. Christmas With the Kranks is a terrible movie. It’s bad, really bad. As a movie it should be relieved that it’s a Christmas movie because that’s the only reason why it still gets play. Well, unless you’re a hardcore Tim Allen head or gear your movie-watching towards those that only include a scene in which Jamie Lee Curtis barely has any clothes on. I mean if that’s the case, you’re basically watching Christmas With the Kranks and True Lies on a loop. That’s a weird way to live.

If you haven’t seen Christmas With the Kranks, I will quickly bring you up to speed on this train wreck of a movie.

Yes, there will be spoilers.

No, I’m not sorry about that.

Allen and Curtis are the Kranks. His name is Luther, her name is something. They have a daughter named Blair, who is off to Peru because she’s a good person and everyone loves her. As a result of her trip to Peru, the Kranks have decided to bail on Christmas, go on a cruise instead. Makes sense to me, but not to everyone else in town and the Kranks’ neighborhood in particular, all of whom take the Kranks’ decision very personally. There is a dust-up involving Frostys on people’s roofs, cops selling calendars of cops posing provocatively and not-so-subtle attempts at intimidation. Also, Tim Allen gets Botox. Why? I don’t know.

Tim Allen & Jamie Lee Curtis as Luther & something Krank

But then Blair announces she is coming home after all so the Kranks ditch the cruise and hastily throw together Christmas, including their fabled Christmas Eve party, which the whole neighborhood looks forward too for some reason that is never made all that clear. And despite their previously held sour grapes towards Luther and his wife, the neighbors are suddenly all cool with them and band together to make Christmas happen because Blair is coming home and everyone effin’ loves Blair. They do. Like, a lot. As for the cruise, Luther, compelled the warming spirit of Christmas, gives the tickets to his neighbor and sick wife. There’s also a dude in Santa outfit who sells umbrellas. He drives a VW Beetle. An old one, not the kind that have a place on the dash for lone flower to brighten up your day.

Again, this movie is terrible.

However, it’s now been a few days since watching it and I keep thinking about it. This movie is definitely horrible and it is in no way worth watching. But it’s stuck with me and as a result, I have some questions. Specially 25, one for each day of the Christmas season.

1. How do people in the Kranks’ neighborhood deal with people of the Jewish faith, i.e. people who don’t celebrate Christmas? I’m assuming not well, but I’m still curious. I’m afraid to ask their thoughts on Muslims.

2. With a name like Luther Krank, you’re destined to be an asshole, right?

3. Did you know John Grisham wrote the story this movie is based on? How do you go from The Firm to this hot garbage?

4. On that note, Grisham just wrote this as a money grab, right? It’s like how every musician inevitably records a Christmas song because it’s easy money. Look at Johnny G, chasing those dollar bills yo.

5. Speaking of money grabs, who was the most money grabbiest of them all: Allen, Curtis, Grisham or Dan Akroyd? Allen was only a few years removed from Home Improvement and had already logged two tours of The Santa Clause as well as two Toy Story movies. He couldn’t have been hurting for cash. Curtis’ career wasn’t dead by any means, but you could see it as slightly sluggish, with the same being said for Akroyd. And yeah, Grisham, he had to have been doing okay by 2004, when Christmas With the Kranks was released. Overall though, all four of these people were doing just fine and we would like to think better of them than to have been simply drawn to this magical Christmas story. So what gives? Who was grabbing for cash the most?

Dan Akroyd as Vic Frohmeyer

6. As for Akroyd, what’s up with his character? He “runs” the neighborhood. What the hell does that even mean? Is their neighborhood a criminal organization? It is it full of Italian immigrants and this is Brooklyn in the early 1900’s? I’m confused.

7. No really, what’s his deal? He claims to know the police chief. Is he in the mob? A union organizer? Is he both?

8. Is he in love with Blair? He changes his tune on the Kranks pretty damn quickly once he hears Blair is coming home. He all but says that he still thinks Luther is a son of a gun, but because it’s Blair, he’s willing to cast aside his beef. This seemed like a pretty big beef, a porterhouse of a beef. Tough to just cast aside. Tough enough to question a person’s motivations.

9. Actually, is everyone in love with Blair? The whole neighborhood all switched gears super quick once they heard she was making an appearance and actually coming home.

10. She’s a good looking gal. That factors into this, right? Let’s not be naive here. History has long proven to be forgiving, downright super accommodating to the good-looking folks living among us. You’d have to think that if Blair looked a little less…uh…appealing…the neighborhood’s attitude towards her might differ slightly. It’s a terrible stance to take, but it’s a realistic one.

11. So Blair goes to Peru for the Peace Corps or something and doesn’t just surprise her parents by coming home for Christmas, she comes home engaged. Didn’t she just leave for Peru at Thanksgiving?

12. Did Blair meet her boo immediately upon arriving in Peru, have a whirlwind romance and less than a month later find herself engaged or had the two been corresponding beforehand via AOL Instant Messenger (RIP?) Although given the apparent magnetism of Blair and people’s attitudes towards her, I guess we can’t be surprised that she’d find a suitor so quickly. You’d have to think that Enrique had to fight off a bevy of dudes to win her heart. One of them was probably Dan Akroyd.

15. Upon realizing that the cruise is never going to happen, a dejected Luther has a little pity party for himself, but then rallies and walks across the street to give both the cruise and plane tickets to his elderly neighbor and his wife, who “has her good days and bad days” due to some mysterious illness. It’s a nice gesture. However it’s a slightly problematic one. Gifting someone plane tickets and cruise tickets with your name on it might have worked in the pre-9/11 era, but this movie presumably takes place after that (it was made in 2004.) I know Luther tells the old couple across the street that he’ll take care of it, but like, how? These are plane tickets we’re talking about here. Those are one of the few things in life that you can’t change no matter what and plane reservations are one of them. What the hell is Luther Crank and his black turtleneck going to do? I’m sorry, but this seems like an empty promise on Luther’s part.

16. Does Luther give the old couple the tickets because he legitimately wants them to go or because he knows he can’t go, it’s too late to change the reservation, but he feels like offering it to them is enough of a nice gesture to ease his troubled conscious? I’m going with the latter.

17. If the guy who dresses up as Santa Claus actually might be Santa Claus, are we then to believe Santa spends his offseason keeping tabs on folks by selling umbrellas on the street of wherever this movie takes place?

18. I wonder if stealing Christmas trees is something that actually happens on a fairly regular basis around Christmas time. And not stealing them from a Christmas tree lot or Christmas tree farm, but stealing a fully decorated tree from someone’s house. If it is something that happens, the smart money is on it happening in Florida.

19. Not really much of a question here, but the music in the movie makes a lot of sense when you see that Steven Van Zandt was the one picking the tunes.

20. Okay, but how did Van Zandt get roped into this?

21. WHY THE HELL DOES TIM ALLEN’S CHARACTER GET BOTOX? He goes tanning, I get that. You want to get a base tan going before going on vacation. But the Botox, though?

22. Who eats a cup of peaches at a restaurant? Oh wait, they’re at the hospital. Do hospital cafeterias sell cups of peaches? Wouldn’t those just be reserved for patients?

23. You know, Jamie Lee does bring up some good points. It’s totally fine to go away for Christmas, but why couldn’t they still put lights on their house? They’re trying to save money, cool. Smart. Paul Ryan hadn’t passed his wonderful tax plan yet and while I’m not sure how that would impact the Kranks, it’s not like decorating for Christmas would have that much of a financial impact on the Kranks. Not decorating, it just seems unnecessary.

24. Come on. At least one person in their neighborhood each year is getting hurt placing their Frosty on their roof, right? That’s a ridiculous tradition. Just put them in the front yard. You don’t get extra points for putting your life in jeopardy. Actually, Vic might actually give extra points for something like that. They really take their Christmas decorating seriously.

25. I bet the 4th of July is off the chain in the Kranks’ neighborhood, right?

I can’t stress this enough. Don’t watch this movie. If you have seen it, don’t watch it again.

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Published by Ryan O'Connell

Ryan harbors a constant fear of losing his keys, prefers flip flops and will always choose cereal if given the choice. He maintains his own blog, Giddy Up America, as well as co-hosts the podcast Differing Opinions on Drake. Ryan is on Twitter: @ryanoconnell79
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